PORT FOURCHON, LA – On October 20, 2025, along Louisiana’s working coast, community leaders, industry partners, and conservationists gathered at the Fourchon Pavilion to celebrate a powerful example of what can be achieved through collaboration: the completion of Phase I of the Port Fourchon Terracing and Living Shoreline Project.
Constructed on land owned in part by the Edward Wisner Donation (Wisner Trust), the project represents the kind of partnership that lies at the heart of the Wisner Trust’s mission – bringing together public and private resources to protect and restore Louisiana’s coastal wetlands for future generations.
“Restoration and protection are guiding principles of the Wisner Trust; they are in our organizational DNA,” said Amanda Phillips, Administrator and Land Manager for the Wisner Trust.
Phase I of the project demonstrates how shared stewardship can protect both Louisiana’s ecosystems and its vital infrastructure. The restoration site, adjacent to Highway 1, LOOP’s Booster Station, and essential Port Fourchon facilities, lies in one of the state’s most rapidly eroding basins.
To combat that loss, partners constructed 87,000 linear feet of earthen marsh terraces – each approximately 75 feet wide at the base with a 10-foot crown – along with 4,000 feet of living shoreline fortified by Natrx “Cajun Coral” oyster reef materials. These nature-based solutions create living reefs that strengthen the coastline, improve water quality, and provide critical habitat for marine life.
Restore or Retreat, funded in great part by a grant from Woodside Energy, held two volunteer plantings where they planted smooth cordgrass plugs and black mangrove seedlings across the terraces, forming the foundation for a thriving, resilient marsh that will serve as both a wildlife haven and a natural buffer against storms.
For the Wisner Trust, this effort reflects a broader philosophy: that restoration succeeds when each partner brings something vital to the table – whether funding, technical expertise, or hands-on work in the field.
“A high school physics teacher once told my incredulous class, ‘If you have a long enough lever, you can move the Earth with one finger,’” Phillips said. “That concept applies to this project. Each partner brought something to the fulcrum – money, knowledge, or sweat equity – that extended the length of our lever, allowing us to build and vegetate more terraces, fortify longer bank lines, and enhance a greater area of this endangered ecosystem.”
The Wisner Trust continues to seek partnerships that amplify restoration efforts across its 50,000-acre coastal holdings in Lafourche, Jefferson, and St. John the Baptist Parishes. In November, Wisner and Restore or Retreat will host a volunteer planting event on newly built terraces in Lafourche Parish. In St. John the Baptist Parish, Wisner is partnering with Ducks Unlimited, CPRA, and the parish government on a hydrological restoration project in Bayou Chevreuil.
“If there is no land, there is no storm surge protection, no infrastructure protection, no critical habitat for marine nurseries, endangered or migratory species, no recreational areas, and no revenue,” Phillips said. “That is a lot to lose. But together, we can move more projects to completion and build a stronger coast for everyone who depends on it.”
Phillips concluded, “Edward Wisner, in his lifetime, was nicknamed the Father of Reclamation. He saw the enduring legacy that land can provide. One person, one entity alone cannot restore the coast – but by working together, we can build a lever long enough to move it.”
The Port Fourchon Terracing and Living Shoreline Project represents one of the broadest coastal restoration coalitions ever assembled. Phase I was made possible by the Edward Wisner Donation, Ducks Unlimited, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, ConocoPhillips, Lafourche Parish Government, Greater Lafourche Port Commission, Chevron, James M. Cox Foundation, Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority, Restore or Retreat, LOOP, North American Wetlands Conservation Council, Coca-Cola Foundation, Woodside Energy, Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, Shell, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Oxy, and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Phase II is slated to begin construction in 2026, adding 108,000 linear feet of additional terraces to enhance approximately 1,000 acres of salt marsh.
Together, these efforts embody the legacy of Edward Wisner – transforming the spirit of reclamation into action and ensuring that Louisiana’s coast continues to sustain its people, its wildlife, and its way of life.